A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



In 1265 Clement IV nominated Bonaven- 

 tura, general minister of the Minorites, to the 

 archbishopric of York, but he refused to ac- 

 cept it.* 



In 1268 the king gave the friars a moat lying 

 on the east side of their area, between it and the 

 * bridge of the Baily ' ; they were to inclose the 

 moat with an earthen wall and raise it 12 ft. so 

 as to make the place suitable for open-air preach- 

 ing ; if, however, the moat was found necessary 

 for defence in time of war, the friars were to 

 give it up.^ 



Archbishop Giffard in 1267 authorized the 

 custodian, wardens, lectors, and other suitable 

 friars to hear confessions in the diocese, and 

 encouraged them to be strenuous and prudent in 

 preaching.^* In 1270 he gave the Minorites of 

 York 13^. 4(f." In 1276 Thomas, rector of 

 the hospital of St. Leonard, entered the order.'' 

 In this year the Minorites were actively preach- 

 ing the Crusade in the diocese ; " and again in 

 1 29 1 the Warden of York was asked by Arch- 

 bishop Romanus to send friars to Howden, Selby, 

 and Pocklington for the same purpose." Nicholas 

 III in 1278 commissioned the Dean and Chan- 

 cellor of Lincoln and the custodian of the Friars 

 Minors of York to confer on some fit person the 

 prebend of York which he held before he became 

 pope.'' Nicholas IV" in 1290 granted an indul- 

 gence to those visiting the church of these friars 

 on the feasts of St. Francis, St. Anthony of Padua, 

 and St. Clare.'' Licence to dedicate the church, 

 which had evidently been rebuilt, and cemetery 

 was given on 24 September 1303." The friars 

 were allowed to enlarge their area by inclosing 

 (i) a road about 118 yds. long and 5^ yds. 

 wide, lying between their land and that late of 

 Alan Brian, in 1280,'* and (2) a lane close to 

 their wall and running * from the highway to a 

 lane leading to the mills near the castle,' in 1290." 

 They further, about 1290, built a stone wall 

 along the bank of the Ouse, still known as the 

 Friars' Walls.'" Through the generosity of John 



1, 431. 

 m. 4 



printed in Drake, 

 Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 9 ; 



Ibid. 



257- 



' Ca/. of Papal Letters, 



'Pat. 52 Hen. Ill, 

 Eboracum, App. p. xlvii. 



'° Hist. P. and L.frotn the N. 

 GiffarSs Reg. (Surt. Soc), 209. 



" Giffard' s Reg. 123. 



" Ibid. 264. 



" Hist. P. and L. from the 



93,95- 



" Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 456 

 284. 



" Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 522. 



" Harl. MS. 6970, fol. 100^. 



^^rorks. Inq. (Yorks. Arch, 

 a.q.d. file 5, no. 3 ; Pat. 8. Edvi. 



" Yorks. Inq. (Yorks. Arch. Soc), ii, 74 ; Inq. a.q.d. 

 file II, no. 13 ; Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. 42 ; printed 

 in Drake, Ebor. App. p. xlvii. 



" Pat. 19 Edw. I, m. 15 ; cf. Yorks. 

 Arch. Soc), ii, 55. 



Rayner they were released m 1296 from a 

 yearly rent of 26^. which they had hitherto paid 

 to the hospital of St. Leonard for a tenement m 

 ' le Bail! '." . ^ 



In 1 298 John de Burton obtained a writ of novel 

 disseisin against Geoffi-ey de Retford, warden, 

 John Tyrel, Thomas of Ousegate, and ten more 

 friars for having unjustly disseised him of his 

 tenement, but subsequently withdrew his writ," 

 The Friars' Wall diverted the force of the 

 stream on to the other bank, endangering Skel- 

 dergate Street, and increasing the difficulties of 

 navigation : on the complaint of the citizens of 

 York the king, in 1305, ordered the construction 

 of a wall on the other side of the Ouse out of 

 the issues of the murage of the city." 



On 14 March 1 299-1300 the goods of the 

 late Archbishop Newark were sequestered and 

 deposited in the house of the Friars Minors, and 

 the next day two friars, G. the chamberlain and 

 H. de Newark, brought nine large and four small 

 chests containing the goods to the cathedral 

 chapter-house.'* 



The friars of this house seem to have num- 

 bered fifty-two in November 1299, when 

 Edward I gave them 52^. for three days' food by 

 the hand of Friar John de Turbingthorpe." In 

 June 1300 there were probably forty-three 

 friars, the recipient of the royal alms being Friar 

 Henry de Shipton." In 1311-12 they num- 

 bered thirty-eight ; in 1319 and 1320 thirty- 

 six and forty." In 1334-5 the number rose to 

 forty-nine and fifty," and fell in 1336 and 1337 

 to forty-five and forty-four." The royal alms 

 from which these figures are derived ceased after 

 the outbreak of the French wars.'" Archbishop 

 Greenfield was a generous benefactor to the 

 friars, especially in times of scarcity.'' 



Edward II made, when at York, several offer- 

 ings * in his chapel within the houses of the Friars 

 Minors,' '' and at the request of Queen Isabella 

 authorized them in 13 14 to acquire and hold in 

 mortmain all the houses and plots of land ' from 

 their middle gate, near the head of the chancel of 

 their church, across to the lane called Hertergate 

 and thence down to the Ouse on the west of their 



iV. Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 



Bullar. Franc, iii. 



Soc), 

 I, m. 



i, 205 ; Inq. 

 6. 



Inq. (Yorks. 



I, m. 2. 



'Notes (Yorks. Arch. Soc), i 



I, pt. ii, m. 9. 



243. 



MS. 



356, no. 7. 

 Topham), 38. 

 fol. 52; 



Add. 



288 



" Pat. 24 Edw. 



« Baildon, Mon. 



" Pat. 33 Edw. 



" Fasti Ebor. i, 353 n. 



" Exch. Accts. (P.R.O.), bdle. 



'^ Liber Quotid. 28 Edui. I (ed. 



" B.M. Cott. MS. Nero C. 

 17362, fol. 3,3^. 

 Cott. MS. Nero C. viii, fol. 

 (P.R.O.), bdle. 317, no. 9. 



" Cott. MS. Nero C. viii, fol. 205, 206*. 



" The friars here numbered twenty-three at the 

 beginning of the i6th century ; Coll. Topog. el Gen. iv, 

 77 ; twenty-one at the Dissolution. 



" Fasti Ebor. i, 392, 393, 396. 



" Cott. MS. Nero C. viii, fol. 51, 5ii. 



202 ; Exch. Accts. 



